This invention relates generally to rotary and linear displacement devices that are equipped with incremental deployment features, i.e., features that act so as to alternately a) permit two components to accelerate relative to one another and b) cause the two components to decelerate relative to one another.
The assignee of the present invention manufactures and deploys spacecraft for, inter alia, communications and broadcast services. Spacecraft often include various deployable structures, e.g., equipment booms, solar arrays, antenna reflectors, antenna masts, etc. Such structures may, for example, often be folded flat against a side of the spacecraft during launch and may then subsequently be deployed using, for example, hinged connections when the spacecraft is on-orbit. The concepts described herein were originally developed for use with such hinged connections, but it is to be understood that the concepts outlined herein may be used in any application in which it is desired to couple two components together such that they may move relative to one another while limiting their maximum speed relative to one another. Such concepts may be applied, as discussed above, to rotationally-coupled components, but may also be applied to linearly-coupled components, such as pistons or slides, or any of various other movably-coupled component arrangements.
Velocity-limiting in mechanical devices is typically performed using some type of fluidic damper, e.g., a shock absorber or a dashpot of some sort, that provides a resistive force that increases in magnitude as a function of velocity. Accordingly, when one component in a movable couple is exposed to a motive force or input relative to the other component in the couple, the moving component will undergo acceleration that is proportional to the motive force. As the relative velocity between the components increases, the fluidic damper may provide an increasing amount of damping force that acts to decelerate the moving component—at some point, the damping force will equal the motive force and the net acceleration will be zero, assuming no friction losses or other sources of energy loss, at which point the relative velocity between the two components will be at a maximum for that level of motive force.
The present inventor has conceived of a new mechanism for providing analogous functionality, but with various advantages. The concepts behind this new mechanism, as well as these advantages, are discussed in further detail below.